


Remember This Your Wisdom

by Alzy (Museaic)



Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, Dragons, Gen, Philosophy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-01 17:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1046777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Museaic/pseuds/Alzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oldest and ageless, the Dragons, creatures of Wisdom and Magic and Fire, remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Becoming and Nothing

Before we remembered, perhaps before there was ought to remember, before we remembered and pondered and increased our wisdom, there was nothing entwined in something and none to perceive and recognise. After we forget, perhaps after we ourselves have been forgotten, after our wisdom diminishes and departs and is no more, we cannot know, for our light, and your light will be over.

When nothing and something began to dance more separately, everything that is became and everything that is not became not. And in their dance, the becoming and the nothing were one and two and one. Since the beginning of everything, this movement and stillness have not ceased, a horizon and shore ever waxing and waning upon and within each other, as the fire within us burns and does not burn, as the crests of the mountains touch and and do not touch the sky, and as the darkness betwixt the stars is and is not.

So as everything that is and nothing that was not moved and remained, the world that we remember became, leaving as nought the world that did not. From this becoming took shape the things that are.

These we know, these we name:

 

Starlight, unveiler of the expanse above.  
Darkness, concealer of the expanse above.  
Fire, unveiler of the expanse below.  
Shadow, concealer of the expanse below.  
Wind, movement of the air above.  
Silence, stillness of the void above.  
Breath, movement of the air below.  
Nox, stillness of the void below.  
Cloud, sea of the expanse above.  
Sea, cloud of the expanse below  
Moon, fastness of the expanse above.  
Mountain, fastness of the expanse below.

 

Much that is not, there is above. Much that is, there is below.

From the movement and the stillness of the things that are, the world began to perceive itself, to remember and forget. And so became that which is of the world and is not the world, that which exists and does not exist, as the flame within us is of us and is not us, as our memories are of us and are not us, and as we two who make you one are one and two and one, so became something new.

This we know and do not know, this we name Wisdom.

Before we remembered, perhaps before we were, there was Wisdom that knew itself. And that Wisdom knew not itself and just as everything is and is not, as everything becomes and undoes, so Wisdom was divided, and continued to divide, and has not ceased.

This we know and this we are, this we name Life.

Before we remembered, perhaps before we became, Life existed in forms unmixed and undivided, Wisdom sending itself into the world and returning uncontradicted, remembering the world as it was and was not. Beings became of Starlight and of Darkness, of Fire and of Shadow, of Wind and of Silence, of Breath and of Nox, of Cloud and of Sea, of Moon and of Mountain.

These we know and have known, these we name not, for they move and remain as we do not.  
These were unmade and do not make as we do, but shape and unshape that which is made.  
These remember before we ourselves were, and are not forgotten.

After these became, Wisdom continued sending itself into the world, returning now contradicted, Life divided upon itself, began to move itself, began to know that one is not another. Beings became of this dividing, who knew and did not know, as the fire within us consumes and does not consume, as the trees of the world reach above and below, and as the great star of the horizon moves and does not move.

These knowings and not knowings we know, these we name Wills.  
These were unmade and do not make as we do, but take on such shapes as they desire.  
These remember before we ourselves were, and do not soon forget.

Before we remembered, before we became, the Wills of the world were within and without it, making and unmaking as they desired. They first were the life that wanted, that claimed, that saw itself. They first were the life that scarred, that marred, that ruled themselves. They first were the beings who caused beings of life to forget.

This forgetting we know and cannot know, this we name Death.

Here is the Wisdom we first remembered, when we began to become:

 

Starlight captured in the facets of our armor.  
Darkness captured in our inner softness.  
Fire kindled in our bellies and our lungs.  
Shadow cast beneath our wings.  
Wind above us and about us.  
Silence in the space we moved in.  
Breath within us then without us.  
Nox in our eyes and in our mouths.  
Cloud in the smoke poured from us.  
Sea in the churning of our wings and limbs.  
Moon in our waxing and our waning.  
Mountain in our hardness and our fastness.

 

When first we saw the stars, when first we saw their dance danced with the darkness, we took flight and we remembered, we living creatures made of all that is, we Wisdom that remembers, we Wills that make according to our shape, we who move about the world wherever we desire, we the heat in cold places, we oldest and ageless of all the fixed forms.

This we know and this we are, this we name ourselves: the People.

Remember this, you one of one and two and one, remember this your wisdom.


	2. One and Two and One

You, one of one and two and one, newborn and ageless are awakened, brought forth living from your hollow stone like a moment of Starlight from an infinity of Darkness, an unquenchable Fire from a fleeting shadow. You are one Life, a Wisdom and a Will particular, known and unknown, the smallest of People with the vastest possibility. You are new and you are old, one of one and two and one, here now at the beginning of your remembering, may it not be forgotten at your end.

You remember how the world became, how all that is and all that is nought separated, how Wisdom knew itself, how Will began to act, how The People became from Starlight and Darkness, from Fire and Shadow, from Wind and Silence, from Breath and Nox, from Cloud and Sea, from Moon and Mountain.

From the movement and stillness of the world that is, came Wisdom, a movement and stillness that knows itself only. The oldest Wisdoms were not made and do not make, still they remain, and we remember them.

From the knowing and not knowing of Wisdom, came Will, a movement and stillness that knows and hungers for that which it knows not. The oldest Wills were not made, but they did make, according to such shapes as they pleased. And we remember them.

Remember now how the People first awoke, remember the first flight and the first forgetting.

The People awoke beneath the stars, saw and remembered their movement in the darkness.

The fire within us burned as breath first stirred our lungs, and we took flight, to move above the tops of trees, above the peaks, beneath the stars, beneath Moon, becoming one with the billowing Sea above, light as Cloud, heavy as Mountain.  
  
We were many, made of every Wisdom, keeping warm within each of us one Will. We were one, made according to a new Wisdom, remembering not the time before we flew.  
  
Our Wisdom called for Wisdom outside itself, and so we went each our own way across the wideness of the world, each one of us a Will alone, apart. We left the place of our first waking, remembering the hour of our first flight, forgetting the place where we first lay before we took wing.   
  
The place of our first waking may yet be, but we do not remember it, and there we do not return. Whether we wakened in the sky, or in the Sea, or somewhere on the shore between the two expanses, we do not know, for when we woke, we left that place. This is the first forgetting and so too will you forget your first waking, but the first flight, you will always remember.

Remember now how one and two and one first flew, becoming three.  
  
The first People flew out from the place of first waking, each carrying Starlight in brilliant colors in their scales and in their wings, each kindled with a Fire within, each a Will that longed for greater Wisdom, to know the wideness of the world.  
  
We hunted beasts and birds across the great plains, made red our teeth and claws with meat, calling them by name and remembering.  
  
We listened to the songs of trees according to their season, danced upon the wind at the canopies and at the roots, wondering at their colors and remembering.  
  
We crested high peaks to sit upon the stillness of the snows, crawled within crevices to find fire in the earth’s belly, feeling awe for the vast mountains and remembering.  
  
We plunged to the depths of the sea and found shadows there as expansive as the darkness of the sky, returning to the surface and the shore and remembering.  
  
Wherever one of the People went they went alone, kindled by a Will apart, seeking out new Wisdom to take into themselves. Nowhere in all the wideness of the living world did one of the People find Life like the Life they had, beings of Wisdom and of Will, beings that remembered.  
  
So through Starlight and Darkness they passed, under Cloud and over Sea, upon the Wind and against the Silence, in sight of Moon and Mountain, seeking a Wisdom that spoke back and a Will that remembered, always in search of Life that made again after our own fixed shape.  
  
Wherever they went, they carried Wisdom far and wide, and remembered.

One of the People met another of the People, we remember:

 

Above a Mountain in the forest,  
In the waving Sea of needles,  
Beneath the grey Cloud of the North,  
When the Moon was at its roundest,  
In the Starlight, in the Darkness,  
Fire met Fire in the sky  
Shadow twined Shadow upon the shore,  
In the Wind, in the Silence,  
Breath met Breath and Nox was not.   
One and two and one.

Breath of one met Breath of one,  
In the mingling of the Fire,  
Meeting of two Wisdoms,  
Twining of two Wills.

 

  
There above the Green Hill flew one and two and one, as the fire within us burns and does not burn, as the crests of the mountains touch and and do not touch the sky, and as the darkness betwixt the stars is and is not.  
  
One and two and one.  
  
Wisdom touched Wisdom in the mingling of the Fires and upon the Green Hill, where four wings cast one Shadow: a green stone. Within the Darkness of that stone, rememberings of one and two and one.  
  
When Wisdoms and Wills mingle, another Will is formed, Wisdom shaped after Wisdom’s shape, new at once and old.  
  
When one and two and one first flew, a third remembered.

So it was with you. And so it will be with you.

And so with all the People until Remembering and Forgetting cease.  
  
Remember this, new born of one and two and one, remember this your wisdom.


End file.
